


Here

by lifelongpotterhead



Category: RWBY
Genre: Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, I meant for this to be fluff but I cried while writing this instead, Multi, Nightmares, Oblivious Jaune Arc, Polyamory, Sharing a Bed, Trans Male Character, jaune has self-esteem issues, trans!Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26726368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifelongpotterhead/pseuds/lifelongpotterhead
Summary: Jaune has nightmares after being reminded of Pyrrha, and Ren and Nora comfort him.Based on that scene in Volume 6 Ep 9
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Here

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written any fic in like 5 full years but I got this idea and I just felt the need to write it! It came out way angstier than I intended, oops.

Jaune leaned back against the wall of the guest room at his sister’s house, letting out a long breath. He slid to the floor, head in his hands.

Seeing Pyrrah’s statue was one of the hardest things that had happened to him since his last encounter with Cinder. She deserved to be here. She deserved to be the leader of their team. She was the model huntress, and she had dedicated her entire life to becoming one. 

Jaune was just some loser who had faked his way in to look cool.

Ren and Nora deserved better. He wasn’t a good leader. If he had just sacrificed himself instead of Pyrrah, their team would be so much better off. 

Jaune pulled himself into his sleeping bag as Ren and Nora walked into the room, holding hands. Sometimes he felt like such a weird third wheel, since the other remaining members of his team were basically dating. Looking at them sent a pang of longing and loneliness through him.

He missed Pyrrha. He wished he could be closer to Ren and Nora. He wished none of this had ever happened and that they were all happy in the dorms after the tournament. He wished he didn’t have to be so alone.

Nora and Ren sat down on the bed in the room that their team shared, both looking at him with frowns. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come sleep in the bed with us?” Asked Nora, “It’s probably a lot more comfortable than the floor. There’s plenty of space!” She waved her arm at the bed, as if to emphasize her point.

Jaune’s brows furrowed. He didn’t understand why they kept asking him that! Didn’t they get how weird it would be for him to sleep in the same bed with them, when they were so close? Ren and Nora had been together almost their entire lives, so it made sense that there was enough intimacy between them to share a bed. But Jaune was the odd one out, like always. They didn’t care about him in the same way, and he wouldn’t expect them to. He wasn’t anything special, just someone that the school had forced them to share a room with.

“No thanks, guys. I’m good right here on the floor.” He turned away, missing the look of concern that Ren and Nora shared as he did so.

“Alright, well, goodnight,” Whispered Ren, as he shut off the light. 

The next thing that Jaune knew, he was back at Beacon, standing on the roof with Pyrrha. He grabbed her hand, staring at her. She was so beautiful. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, and her smile was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. Jaune couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

Which meant that, by the time he spotted Cinder over her shoulder, it was too late.

He saw the arrow pierce her chest, just stopping shy of stabbing through his own heart. Blood bloomed across her skin, and she gasped out a breath as the arrow pierced her lungs. Her blue eyes were so wide, as if she hadn’t expected it. 

Her body started to turn to ash as he grabbed on to her, trying to pull her closer. A scream tore itself from his throat.

“No, no, No, NO, NO!” He shrieked. This couldn’t be happening. Pyrrha didn’t deserve to die. Not like this. 

“Jaune?” He heard a soft voice from over his shoulder, and turned.

He turned just in time to watch Cinder stab Ren right through the stomach, her glass sword glistening with blood as Ren tumbled to the ground. 

Jaune barely had the chance to raise his sword as Cinder stepped toward Nora. Nora’s hammer was on the ground, and she was backing away from Cinder, as if that might do something to stop what was about to happen.

Jaune raised his sword, and watched as it, too, crumbled to ash in the wind.

“You really thought that your pathetic little sword could do anything to stop me? You, without a real semblance? You’re a failure, and you are certainly not a real huntsman,” Cinder laughed, as if he were completely insignificant to her. Maybe he was.

And then she raised her still-bloody sword and stabbed it straight through Nora’s heart. 

Jaune felt himself scream, louder than he thought possible. And then he opened his eyes into darkness.

He gasped for breath, his chest heaving, and he felt tears slip down his cheeks. Pyrrha. Ren. Nora. They were all dead. They were all dead because of him. Because Jaune was such a worthless huntsman. He had killed all of his teammates. They had trusted him to be their leader and he had killed them.

“Jaune?”

Jaune whirled around. That sounded like Nora, but that couldn’t be Nora. Nora was dead.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and flinched away. The person that the hand belonged to looked like Nora, too. “Come here, Jaune,” The voice was soft. He allowed ghost-Nora to pull him to his feet and lead him to the bed. It wasn’t as if the ghost could give him any punishment that he wasn’t worthy of.

Jaune robotically sat down on the bed that she led him to, next to ghost-Ren, who stared at him with wide eyes.

“Jaune, are you okay? You were screaming our names in your sleep,” Ghost-Ren said, cocking his head.

Jaune’s breaths still came in gasps. “Well, I am talking to dead people, so I am either completely crazy or hallucinating,” he wheezed out.

Ghost-Nora and ghost-Ren’s eyes widened. “Jaune, you know we’re not dead, right?” Ghost-Nora whispered.

“I just watched you die! Of course you’re dead. You, and Ren, and Pyrrha. You’re all dead and I killed you because I’m a piece of shit.”

Ghost-Ren reached up and wiped some of the tears off of Jaune’s face, his thumb grazing the edge of Jaune’s jaw. He had to admit, that didn’t feel very ghost-like. Ren’s hands were warm and heavy against his skin.

“No. We’re real and we’re right here,” Ren said, “We aren’t going anywhere. Pyrrha is gone, but we are still right here.”

Nora grabbed onto one of Jaune’s hands, enveloping it in her own. “We aren’t dead, Jaune. And we are gonna try really, really hard to make sure that we don’t die anytime soon, either. We don’t want to leave you alone.” 

“Can I just,” Jaune swallowed, “Can I just check to make sure you haven’t been stabbed?”

The other two nodded.

He took his free hand and grazed it over Ren’s stomach. He lifted up Ren’s shirt and pressed his shaking hand to the other boy’s bare skin. There was no stab wound, no scar, no blade. His skin was unblemished. No sword had ever gone through his flesh.

Jaune let out a sob. It had felt so real. Did Jaune even know what was real anymore?

Ren grabbed his hand, slowly, and unexpectedly. He dragged Jaune’s hand up his stomach, across his top surgery scars, and rested it over his heart.

Nora placed his other hand over her heart, as well. He felt both of their heartbeats beneath his palms.

Real. This was real. He wasn’t imagining their pulses, warm beneath his skin.

Tears continued to fall down his cheeks, a mixture of relief and confusion and despair and a million emotions he couldn’t quite name.

Pyrrha was gone, but Nora and Ren were still right there. His team still had 3 members to it.

“We will always be right here, Jaune. We love you. You’re part of our team, and we love you like we love each other. You aren’t a piece of shit, and you aren’t a failure. You’re perfect, Jaune. We couldn’t ask for a better team leader,” Nora said, her voice reverberating in her chest. 

Ren pulled Jaune into a hug. “We care about you more than you could possibly know. It hurts us when you are so self-deprecating. Pyrrha wouldn’t want that, and we don’t want it either. You are the best thing in either of our lives.” 

Jaune blinked as Nora pulled him into a hug, too. He buried his face in her hair, tears dampening it. He wasn’t really sure what to say- what they were saying sounded crazy. Why did they care about him so much? 

“I-I don’t understand,” He finally whispered, voice cracking. 

“We want you to be part of our relationship,” Said Nora, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, “We love you, and we care about you, and we want to be with you.” 

Jaune blinked. The part of him that had gotten jealous when he saw the two of them cuddled together, the part of him that felt so lonely and adrift as the third wheel of team JNR, was overjoyed. But why him? Why did they want him? 

“Pyrrha wouldn’t want you to stay alone forever out of guilt or self-hatred. She chose her path, and she knew the risks. You didn’t kill her, and you aren’t a bad leader. She loved you too, and she would want you to move on,” Said Ren. 

“I,” Jaune took a deep breath, “I love you guys too. But I don’t understand how you could ever love me.” 

“You are perfect, Jaune Arc. You try harder than anyone I have ever met in my life. You have a good heart, you are kind, you are loving, and you are the best leader I have ever seen in my life. You are beautiful, and hilarious, and you want the best for everyone. You care so, so much about everyone around you. You are incredible, Jaune, and that is why we love you,” Nora said, softly.

Ren pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I second everything that she just said.” 

Jaune wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. “Oh.” 

“Now please,” Said Nora, “Stay the night with us in this bed. We kept inviting you because we want you here. We wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

“Okay,” whispered Jaune, feeling a little dumb for having assumed that they were just inviting him out of politeness so that he wouldn’t have to sleep on the hard floor.

Ren pulled Jaune down in between the two of them, with himself flush against Jaune’s back. Nora faced Jaune, her blue eyes meeting his with very little space between them. It suddenly struck Jaune how gorgeous she was, a thought that he had never let himself entertain before, knowing that she was with Ren. 

Both of them wrapped an arm around Jaune, surrounding him with warmth and comfort. Nora pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Goodnight, Jaune. We love you.”

Jaune didn’t have another nightmare for the rest of the night, and would wake to see sunlight streaming in through the window, at midday, rather than the light of dawn that he was usually awake to see.


End file.
